Michael McDermott
“We are in one of the greatest industries on the planet! For me, SECUTIX is where passion and profession intersect.”
You don’t get any more enthusiastic than that in our business, do you? Those are the words of Michael McDermott, the recently appointed General Manager of the Americas for SECUTIX. Founded in 2002, the company is a provider of an open cloud ticketing and engagement platform that assists organizations worldwide in boosting ticket sales and enhancing ticket buyers’ experiences before, during and after live events.
McDermott is indeed new to the firm having previously served as chief revenue officer for NCS Analytics, a leading provider of analytics that enables governments and financial institutions complete visibility to monitor and regulate the commercial cannabis industry. He says, “I’ve joined SECUTIX because it’s providing a unique way of solving the current challenges facing our customers. It’s an open cloud platform which provides organizations complete control with a suite of tools to better understand and directly engage with their audiences, monetize products and services, secure operations, and take audience experiences to the next level.”
He is especially high on his company’s TIXNGO application, a highly secure mobile ticket wallet. “Leveraging the encryption and security of blockchain, it’s proven to tackle ticket fraud at large scale events,” he says. “In fact, it was used for Ed Sheeran’s run of Paris gigs last summer, creating a safer and fairer way to buy and sell tickets for his fans. Anything that can make the ticket buying experience smoother and better for fans is something I hear the American consumer asking for.”
Of course, there is a lot being asked of him. Coming from outside the live events industry, what does McDermott feel he brings to ticketing that can help drive the market? He was quick to note: “I would consider myself a returning alumnus. In the mid-2000s, I led an amazing ticketing, POS, access control company for attractions, parks and zoos to a global market leader in ski [resorts] with expansion into the other markets. So, I have a perspective from that experience. I also bring decades of enterprise ERP, CRM, supply chain, [and] analytics software experience with Oracle. The common intersection with both of them is the approach to understand market challenges and innovate solutions that deliver value with enabling technologies. The goal is to make your customers be amazing success stories.”
He adds, “I believe the key to success is passion, perseverance and positivity. I found these three characteristics create positive energy and momentum for ongoing achievements. As a technology company, our mission is to focus on solving market challenges and strategies with solutions to meet them with benefits and values that make customers successful. When you combine all of these, magic happens.”
McDermott is still able to see the magic in technology, along with the possibilities and potential. Blockchain is something he especially holds in high regard. He says, “Blockchain is an emerging technology. This creates different narratives depending on a point of view — excitement, fear, confusion. I like to start by describing the key requirements of our customers. Our customers provide large-scale events of 90,000 fans attending high-profile events with high-value tickets. The focus on technology needs to be scalable, available and secure. At SECTUIX, we leverage the encryption and security of blockchain technology. This is a reliable way to guarantee the safe delivery of tens of thousands of mobile tickets in the few hours leading up to a large-scale event. Looking forward, we believe that Web 3.0, incorporating blockchain and NFTs, is the future. Our ambition is for SECUTIX to become the default Web 3.0 wallet that event organizers and fans use to interact and engage in a more direct peer-to-peer way.”
McDermott’s enthusiasm is infectious. Even though he just came aboard at SECUTIX in January, there are already aspects of the job he considers his favorite. Chiefly? “The ability to share passion and energy with customers, partners and influencers such as INTIX to collaborate. The interaction creates higher awareness of the shared challenges and successes to improve the industry as a whole.”
Looking ahead to the full year of 2023, McDermott foresees further digital transformation and more intimate relationships between artists, sports teams, curators and their fans. He points to metaverse concerts and events that are happening today. “This creates a unique experience and relationship,” he says. “There is no need for any physical assets from weather to facilities. This will strengthen the artists, sports teams and curators’ ability to directly connect to fans and deliver unique content and experiences. This also changes the financial models with value moving from the physical world to the digital world. I believe there is a need for both physical and digital to exist.”
McDermott doesn’t see the metaverse replacing live events. But he does believe it is up to the live entertainment industry to “rise to the challenge that technological advances throw at us. It might be out of your comfort zone, but for many Gen Z and future fans, this ‘meta-live’ hybrid will be very appealing. And being seen and experienced by a larger, global audience in the digital world, the live will become more special and valuable. These technological changes are absolutely an opportunity for the live entertainment industry. Demand to be there in person will only get higher! For us in ticketing, we need to continue to innovate how to help our customers connect and deliver amazing experiences for their fans to plan, purchase, participate and treasure their experiences with digital collectibles.”
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